This is the thirteenth annual report from the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland. It is based on data collected on persons presenting to hospital emergency departments as a result of self-harm in 2014 in the Republic of Ireland.

In 2014, the Registry recorded 11,126 presentations to hospital due to self-harm nationally, involving 8,708 individuals. Taking the population into account, the age-standardised rate of individuals presenting to hospital following self-harm in 2014 was 200 per 100,000. Thus, the self-harm rate was essentially unchanged from 2013. This levelling-off follows three successive decreases in the rate of persons presenting to hospital following self-harm in Ireland from 2011 to 2013. However, the rate in 2014 was still significantly higher (+6%) than the pre-recession rate in 2007 (188 per 100,000).

Within the calendar year 2014, at least five self-harm presentations were made by 138 individuals, accounting for just 2% of all self-harm patients in the year but 10% of all self-harm presentations recorded. As in previous years, self-cutting was associated with an increased level of repetition. Almost one in five (17.6%) of those who used cutting as their main method of self-harm in their index act made at least one subsequent self-harm presentation in the calendar year compared to over one in ten (13.7%) of those who took an intentional drug overdose. Risk of repetition was greatest in the days and weeks following a self-harm presentation to hospital and the risk increased markedly with each subsequent presentation.